May 21, 1901: Connecticut Sets First Speed Limit at 12 MPH

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May 21, 1901: Connecticut Sets First Speed Limit at 12 MPH

The first speed-limit law in the United States, which applied to automobiles like this circa-1900 electric from Riker, also included mandates for how cars behaved near horse-drawn carriages.Courtesy The Smithsonian CollectionView Slideshow __1901: __Connecticut passes the first U.S. state law regulating motor vehicles. It sets a speed limit of 12 mph in cities and a whopping 15 mph outside.

[N]o wagons, carts or sleighs shall be run, rode or driven at a gallop [and] that the drivers and conductors of all wagons, carts and sleighs within this city (the Broad Highway alone excepted) shall walk by the wagons, carts or sleighs and so take and lead the horses, on the penalty of two pounds Flemish [about $150 in today's money] for the first time, and for the second time double, and for the third time to be arbitrarily corrected therefor and in addition to be responsible for all damages which may arise therefrom."Arrests for speeding in motor vehicles also precede the Connecticut law. Cabbie Jacob German was arrested and jailed in New York City May 20, 1899, for driving his electric taxi at the "breakneck speed" of 12 mph.

The very word automobile was a new entry in the English language. When Connecticut passed its speeding-driver law, it was less than two years since the first use of the term in a major U.S. newspaper. Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Charles Shanks used the French word automobile in a series of articles starting May 22, 1899. The name soon caught on, replacing the backward-looking horseless carriage.